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Demand for irrigation water will drain most of 1,900-acre Barr
lake by the end of this month, depleting the fishery, but creating a
mecca for shorebirds.
"I also think coyotes and raptors will do well on fish that
aren't caught by anglers," Obe Lowry, district wildlife manager
for the state Division of Wildlife, said Thursday.
"If anything, I think it will help the bald eagles that nest
here by making food available. But they are more reliant on prairie
dogs than fish anyway."
Because most of the fish — millions of walleyes, wipers, tiger
muskies, rainbow trout, catfish, smallmouth and largemouth bass,
crappie, bluegill and yellow perch — will be lost, the wildlife
division has dropped bag limits so anglers with a valid license can
take as many as they want.
The 1,900 acre lake originally was a buffalo wallow, but was
converted into a reservoir in the late 1880s and fed by canals from
the South Platte River as a storage area for irrigation water for
hay, corn and sugar beets.
The water is owned and regulated by the Farmers Reservoir
Irrigation Co. in Brighton, and because of the drought situation in
the state, the demand for water by farmers will take most of the
reservoir.
"Rather than looking at this in a negative way, I think it
could mean people will be able later this month and in September to
see a lot of species of migrating shorebirds that aren't normally
found here," said Michael Carter of the Colorado Bird
Observatory.
The observatory is located at Barr Lake State Park near
Interstate 76 and Picadilly Road southeast of Brighton.
"Usually the lake is so full the water goes into the trees,
and there is no shore so there's no place for shorebirds to stop
over," Carter said.
He believes some species that may stop over include members of
the sandpiper family — Baird's, pectoral, and western —
semipalmated plover, greater and lesser yellowlegs, willet and
short-billed dowitcher.
"They need a mosiac of mud flats, which may be created
unless they draw the water all the way down so it dries up. That
wouldn't be good," Carter said.
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